The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said it will not be pressured into congratulating Governor Ademola Adeleke over his victory in the August 15 Osun State governorship election, insisting that it must first conclude its review of the electoral process.
The Director-General of the APC governorship campaign in Osun State, Oluwole Oke, disclosed this on Monday during an interview with Arise News, saying the party was conducting a thorough assessment of the election results before deciding its next course of action.
Oke said the party disagreed with the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which returned Adeleke as winner of the election.
He said, “We won’t be under any sort of pressure to easily reach out to congratulate Senator Ademola Adeleke.
“We do not agree with the declaration of INEC. That’s our position for now. We believe he did not score the highest valid votes.”
According to him, the position of President Bola Tinubu, who congratulated Adeleke after INEC announced the result, was different from that of the APC campaign organisation, which was directly involved in the conduct and monitoring of the election.
Oke said the campaign team had commenced an audit of the election and directed its agents across the state to submit relevant electoral documents for scrutiny.
“We have embarked on an audit process. We have asked all our party agents to submit copies of Forms EC8A, B, and C to our secretariat for review. We need to inspect the materials,” he said.
INEC declared Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the winner after he polled 511,067 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who secured 444,815 votes.
The Accord candidate, Najeem Salaam, came third with 17,180 votes.
Adeleke won in 19 local government areas, while Oyebamiji secured 11, giving the incumbent governor a margin of 66,252 votes.
Following his declaration, Adeleke urged Oyebamiji to call and congratulate him, describing such a gesture as the “civilised thing to do.”
However, Oke maintained that the APC would not be rushed into taking such a step until it had completed its assessment of the election.
“When you have a project of this nature with the outcome announced by INEC, we will not be in a haste, nor shall we be under pressure without doing the needful,” he said.
The APC Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, also said the party was still studying the results from all 332 wards in the state.
The party further stated that an election process could continue through the election petition tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, adding that it would consult its lawyers and consider all legal options available under the Electoral Act if irregularities were established.
Oke said the party would also examine issues surrounding the pre-election period and the conduct of the poll against the provisions of the Electoral Act and other relevant laws.
“Until we do that and form our opinion, we won’t be able to go further to say anything on this,” he said.
The APC campaign director-general also criticised the Adeleke administration, questioning its performance in education, healthcare and support for farmers in the state.
“When you look at this in totality, you can see the failures of government glaring in the citizens’ faces,” Oke said.
